A Raven and His Scout.

Paritosh, a raven pilot known to run missions for Creodron was popped a few days ago after much hard work by some patient scanning and probing work by Black-Flag and associates. We found him again in Gusandall. A contact of mine found him at the a bar, chatting to some red-headed Caldari and then attempting to slip away. Paritosh was followed and we had eyes on his raven-class battleship. He did not undock straightaway so we waited: an ishtar, brutix and my jaguar. We were all loaded for EMP and it would be enough. However, as the clock ticked by, it was obvious he wasn't coming out. Blade3D had spotted a caracal and decided to drop a probe for it and we all focused our attention on it. Unbeknown to us, Paritosh did undock and slipped into his mission area. His ship appeared on our local scanners.

"Raven on scan. Raven on scan. It's Paritosh." Said Veritas.
"Roger that." Confirmed Blade3D. "Scanning for him." We waited as the scan probes were scattered out in a wide pattern and the seconds ticked by.
"I hate this waiting." Muttered Veritas.
"Patience. We'll get a hit." I replied, fully aware that luck plays a big part in the success of such probing attempts. I kept my fingers crossed. Blade got a response and grumbled at the result.
"No hit. Trying again." The probe went through the cycle again, sending out it's feelers into the vacuum around it. A ship in space leaves a trail in most of the electro-magnetic spectrum: energy bleeds from it's engines, heat from the thrusters and the em pulse of war heads and missiles to name only three. The probe would attempt to sift through the background noise to seek out a consistent pattern. The problem has never been that one can not get any results, the problem is that there is too much.
"I have a hit on a raven! Accuracy is 0m." Announced Blade.
"Right on top of him!"
"Blade, gang warp us to the mark. Everyone load up on EMP. All pilots, status please." I said, assuming command just prior to the engagement.
"Blade: ready with one point."
"Veritas: ready with one point."
"Flash: read with one point." As I finished, the three ships of Black-Flag aligned and warped together into the target area. The space around the three ships folded and elongated into a tunnel, lined with purple and pink flashes. The warp engines pulled is in. All my systems were green and I was looking forward to killing the raven again.

The three ships all landed outside an ancient stargate, recently jury-rigged with a small fusion reactor and now active for a short period. Paritosh was just through here.

"Contact. Contact. Shuttle here." Warned Blade. Damn it, the raven pilot had obviously asked a friend to keep an eye out and to warn him of possible interlopers. We had to be fast and I activated the gate and was pulled into deep space. The raven was there and it was aligning. I started the target cycle but the raven was already in warp. In a flash, Paritosh was gone.

"Shit!!" Cried out Veritas. The shuttle scout warped in alongside Blade. We locked and blasted the shuttle in anger.

We decided that the we should scan for the caracal and book mark this location and wait for the raven. He would be coming back as this was a high level mission for an important agent. Most mission runners would not want to lose out on faction standings.

So we waited.

Paritosh appeared a couple of times, no doubt checking from the safety of the gate but never came back.

Next time, blast the scout and park a covert-ops at the gate......